1. Field
This application relates to methods and apparatuses for registering a plurality of medical images.
2. Description of Related Art
Recent developments in medical technologies enable acquisition of high-resolution medical images and minute manipulation of medical equipment. For example, surgical methods for making a small incision, inserting a catheter or a medical needle into a blood vessel or a desired location of a body, and observing the interior of the body using medical imaging equipment, and performing treatment have been developed. Such methods are referred to as “image-guided surgeries” or “interventional imaging surgeries.” A surgeon determines locations of organs or lesions from images. Furthermore, since a patient breathes or moves during a surgery, it is necessary to determine changes caused thereby. Therefore, it is necessary for a surgeon to determine breathing and movement of a patient based on real-time images quickly and precisely to perform a surgery, where it is not easy to recognize shapes of organs and lesions with the naked eye. For example, in the case of a liver cancer patient, the shapes of the liver and lesions cannot be recognized based on ultrasound images obtained in real time during surgery. On the other hand, although images obtained via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) enable clear recognition of the shapes of the liver and lesions of a liver cancer patient, the images cannot be obtained in real time during surgery.